Performance of Nurses in Parenteral Nutrition-related Care at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences NICUs

Abstract

Nutritional care is of vital importance for premature infants, and minimize the loss of body storages at whom is unable to meet his caloric requirement. With regard to the necessity of conformity and proximity of the care services to the standards as much as possible, the present study is aimed to investigate the nurses' performance in PN-related care at NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) of the hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The present descriptive study was conducted on 70 nurses working at NICUs of the hospitals affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Data collection was performed using a three-part checklist containing the information on the nurses' performance status in terms of the PN procedure standards before, during, and after providing the care services (pre, peri, and post-PN procedure). Furthermore, in order for data analysis, SPSS-21 software and descriptive statistics were used. The result showed that the maximum and minimum performance scores were related to the pre-PN and peri-PN care stages, respectively. In terms of the PN standards observance level, findings indicated that performance of the nurses was, in most of the cases, at a moderate level at all three pre, peri, and post-PN stages. Nurses have direct impacts on patient care as well as its consequent outcomes. Since neglecting the importance of the PN-related care at NICU,s may lead to irreparable damages to the infants due to their high vulnerability, it is essential to hold training session for the medical treatment staff in order to promote the standard practical methods.